Nick the Geek

Genesis Featured Widget Amplified adds additional functionality to the Genesis Featured Posts Widget. Specifically it:
<ul>
<li>Supports Custom Post Types</li>
<li>Supports Custom Taxonomies</li>
<li>Exclude Term by ID field</li>
<li>Supports Pagination</li>
<li>Supports Meta Key Values</li>
<li>Supports Sorting by Meta Key</li>
<li>Multiple Hooks and Filters for adding additional content</li>
</ul>
This plugin requires the <a href="http://studiopress.com" rel="nofollow ugc">Genesis Theme Framework</a> 
While the plugin will work on the HTML5 “Pro” themes, the HTML markup only supports the older XHTML themes at this time. It is not recommended for use on the new HTML5 themes.
Thanks to David Decker, this plugin is translation ready. German translation files included.
<h3>Special Thanks</h3>
I owe a huge debt of gratitude to all the folks at StudioPress, their themes make my life easier.
Gary Jones (aka GaryJ) provided guidance on several issues related to debugging and documentation

Genesis Featured Widget Amplified

Genesis Featured Posts with support for custom post types, taxonomies, and so much more

Nelio Software

David Aguilera

With this WordPress plugin, you can define a set of featured posts easily. 
These featured posts can be added to your theme wherever you want via a widget.
The plugin is extremely simple, fast, and reliable. Once you have selected the 
featured posts, they are saved in a cache, so that the amount of database 
queries is kept to the minimum.
<blockquote>
Custom Templates 
 Version 2.0.0 let’s you define your own templates for displaying each related 
 post. Just create a directory named <code>neliofp</code> in your theme’s directory and 
 create the template you want to use such as, for instance, 
 <code>template-name.php</code>. When inserting the widget, specify that the template is 
 <code>template-name</code> and you’re ready to go!
Warning Remember to save your templates somewhere save before updating 
 your theme!
(In the directory <code>template-examples</code> you’ll find some examples).
</blockquote>
Featured image by <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/abulic_monkey/291689115/" rel="nofollow ugc">Abulic 
Monkey</a>
<h4>Features</h4>
<ul>
<li>Featured Posts Selection Set the list of featured posts from one single 
place.</li>
<li>Powered by a Widget Use the featured images wherever you want by simply 
adding a widget.</li>
<li>Customization You can tweak a few details of the featured post list, such 
as the section title or the number of words in the excerpt.</li>
</ul>
<h4>Featured On</h4>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://designcoral.com/wordpress/free-featured-post-widgets-for-wordpress/" rel="nofollow ugc">13 Awesome Free Featured Post Widgets for 
WordPress</a> 
(designcoral.com)</li>
<li><a href="https://neliosoftware.com/blog/set-collection-featured-posts/" rel="nofollow ugc">How To Set Up a Collection of Featured 
Posts</a> (Nelio’s blog)</li>
</ul>
<h4>Related Plugins by Nelio</h4>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://neliosoftware.com/content/?fp=wordpress.org" rel="nofollow ugc">Nelio Content</a> | 
<a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/nelio-content/" rel="ugc">Download</a></li>
<li><a href="https://nelioabtesting.com/?fp=wordpress.org" rel="nofollow ugc">Nelio A/B Testing</a> | 
<a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/nelio-ab-testing/" rel="ugc">Download</a></li>
<li>Nelio External Featured Image | 
<a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/external-featured-image/" rel="ugc">Download</a></li>
<li>Nelio Related Posts | 
<a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/nelio-related-posts/" rel="ugc">Download</a></li>
</ul>
Featured image by <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/abulic_monkey/291689115/" rel="nofollow ugc">Abulic 
Monkey</a>

Nelio Featured Posts

The easiest featured post plugin I've come across. It's easy to setup, and the templating system was perfect for my needs. I would give this 5 stars except for some styling issues related to default styles from the plugin.

Simple & Effective

Select the featured posts you want to show at any time and include them in your theme using a widget.

Genesis Featured Widget Amplified vs Nelio Featured Posts